Nokia exec: Young fashonistas 'fed up' with iPhone

A Nokia exec has identified the target market to which his Espoonians will "deliver services and phones that are different" from the industry-leading iPhone and Android-based smartphones: jaded kids.

"What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone," Nokia Entertainment Global sales director Niels Munksgaard told the UK gadget site Pocket-lint.

"Also," he added, "many are not happy with the complexity of Android and the lack of security."

From Munksgaard's point of view, "The marketplace is extremely crowded. I refer to it as the sea of sameness" – that sameness being evidenced by the plethora of "black mono-blocks" whose lack of individuality is "very confusing to the consumer."

How will Nokia rise out of that sea and attract those confused young 'uns? Well, Munksgaard cited as one example the Nokia Mix Radio streaming service – hardly a truly unique offering.

That said, Nokia's new Lumia 800 shows that the phone-flogging Finns can benefit from their WinPho alliance – a development that was not at all certain when Espoo and Redmond hooked up this February.

Even if Munksgaard is correct that The Youth of Today™ are weary of iPhones and Android handsets, it's far from certain that fashion-forward trendsetters will anoint Nokia's smartphones as the next coveted shiny-shiny.